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Welcome to our blog - the place to be for news on all things YMT! We will be sharing interviews, reviews from our team of young critics around the UK, tips and advice, special offers, competitions and promotions and a monthly overview of the ‘world of theatre’ by our guest blogger, Cyril (the office Squirrel). This is a space for YMTers and Alumni to share stories, so if you have something you want to say, please get in touch by emailing: mail@ymtuk.org. We will also be giving away special YMT merchandise (hoodies, badges, bags and t-shirts) for the best comments – so get involved!

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16/05/14

Of course, we all know those famous Grimms' fairy tales like Cinderella and Rapunzel, but mostly we've read or seen the Disney versions. The real Grimm tales are much darker and more frightening - some so frightening that we rarely hear or see them.

YMT's Summer Skills course in Belfast gives you the chance to discover and create a whole new world of scary tales, ones that could be set in Belfast city centre on any Saturday night or in the lonely mists of the Sperrin mountains or on a deserted island in Strangford Lough....

In the spirit of scares, YMT would like to give you a spooky insight into the parts of the Grimm stories that you were never told…

Snow White

We all remember Snow White and her entourage of dwarfs: Angry, Slappy, Manic-depressy and so on. The moral of the story: When it comes to enchanted fruit never buy local. It doesn’t matter how juicy the organic insomnia apple looks, you’d probably be better off at Sainsbury’s.

The Original

At the end of the story the evil queen is punished; what the Disney version failed to mention was the method of punishment. A pair of glowing-hot iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is forced to step into the burning shoes and dance until she drops dead! Why can no one take an innocent poisoned apple joke anymore?

Hansel and Gretel

Two children lost in the woods far from home. They find themselves imprisoned within a gingerbread cottage by an evil witch, seeking to fatten them up with all manner of delicious sweets. Presumably they didn’t think to chew their way to freedom through the bathroom wall. Regardless they return joyfully to their family with the witch’s wealth and type-two diabetes. Hooray!

The Original

An important omission from the tale is that when a great famine settles over the land, the children’s abusive stepmother decides to take them into the woods and leave them there to die because they eat too much.

Cinderella

Impractical footwear, obsessive dance partners, running for the midnight tube home, Cinderella has all the hallmarks of magical and most likely messy night out. God knows we could all use a pumpkin cab home, especially after a few too many mystic brews.

The Original

The gruesome detail removed from the original story is that in the evil sister’s eagerness to fool the prince they actually cut off their toes and parts of their heel to fit into the glass slipper. Turning the shoe red with their blood.

Rapunzel

In the next tale our heroine is having the mother of all bad hair days; Rapunzel is definitely not the person you want to be dancing next to in a club. But all this fails to put off our valiant prince who sees her as the ultimate girl next door… next tower?

The Original

On the prince’s penultimate rescue attempt he unknowingly climbs up Rapunzel’s severed hair, cut by the villain Mother Gothel. She tells him he will never see Rapunzel again. So he jumps out the window in despair and is blinded from the thorns below.

Little Red Riding Hood

"Goodness, what big eyes you have Grandma!"
"The better to see you with"
“No, seriously they’re like twice the size Grandma"
“I’m wearing my contacts”
“And what big hands you have!"
"The better to hug you with"
“Because they look a lot like paws to me”
“Carpal tunnel syndrome”
“And the fur?”
“You like my new gloves then? Come closer and see them”

The only way this story could work in reality is if the young girl already had an exceptionally hairy grandmother…

The Sequel?

The Brothers Grimm actually wrote second part to Little Red’s story. It involved the girl and her grandmother trapping and killing another wolf, this time anticipating his moves based on their experience with the previous one. The girl did not leave the path when the wolf spoke to her, her grandmother locked the door to keep it out, and when the wolf lurked, the grandmother had Little Red Riding Hood put a trough under the chimney and fill it with water that sausages had been cooked in; the smell lured the wolf down, and it drowned.

08/05/14

This July the thumping sound of Drum ‘n’ Bass cascades down the corridors of Dunsinane. An ominous beat reverberates through the dank fog of YMT's dystopian reimagining of Shakespeare's perennial horror story Macbeth. The talented YMT cast bring a new twisted take on the things that could conceivably go bump in the night.

As the host of ghosts, witches, cybergoths and neon-clad ravers waltz towards us through the apocalyptic murk this summer, YMT takes a retrospective on past attempts to set The Bard to music. The triumphs and the tragedies!

West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet)

Director Jerome Robbins transported Shakespeare’s iconic romance, Romeo and Juliet, to the boroughs of 1960s New York, where the streetlight crossed lovers were reborn. Replacing swords with scissor kicks and punches with pliés this vibrant adaptation remains exhilarating and poignant today.

Fun Fact: In the film adaptation of the musical Elvis Presley was approached to play the lead role of Tony, but Col. Tom Parker turned the studio down. If Elvis had done the movie, he'd have ended up playing opposite real-life ex-girlfriend Natalie Wood.

The Lion King (Hamlet)

If Hamlet were equipped with claws and a skull-crushing jaw strength, would he have been less indecisive about killing (or even eating) his traitorous uncle? According to The Lion King: apparently not.

Disney’s winning formula:
• Substitute the poison with a stampede of wildebeest.
• Switch the ghost with a talkative cumulous cloud.
• Finally provide the play’s royal family with some extra fur, a tail and some pleasant baritones.

Fun Fact: A wildlife expert brought a lion, a baboon and some vultures to the film studio so the animators could study certain behaviours. For example, in the movie, Rafiki carries a staff, so the animators had the real baboon carry a long stick around so they could sketch him in different poses.

Kiss Me Kate (The Taming of the Shrew)

Kiss Me Kate tells the story of a theatre troupe’s haphazard attempt to stage a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. As life begins to imitate art the ensemble unravels into a farcical explosion of metathetrical romance and murderous mobsters.

Near the dénouement the theatrical thugs who endanger the production find themselves trapped onstage. With nowhere to run they are forced to improvise a tribute to Shakespeare in which they explain that understanding The Bard is the key to romance, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".

Fun Fact: The 1953 screenplay adaptation of the musical was originally filmed in 3D, which is why the actors often throw things (including themselves) at the audience.

It seems YMT’s Macbeth is in fine company! If you think The Bard could use a dose of dance or a medicinal jab of music then come join us at The Lyric Theatre Belfast this July!